My dad's Nigerian, and I remember going to Nigeria, and all of these kids and adults and everyone in-between knew who TuPac was. They had TuPac t-shirts, TuPac posters, TuPac cassettes... everyone knew TuPac, and sometimes that was the only English that they spoke, was TuPac lyrics.
I like Jay-Z. I love Luda. I love Ledisi. I like Beyonce, of course. I think she's just brilliant. She's a triple threat. But my favorite - my all-time rapper is Tupac. See, I could have been Tupac's girlfriend.
Everybody has the Tupac that they admire. Certain people love the hip-hop person, the rapper. Strictly just the rapper. A lot of people, the newfound Tupac fans... they're into Death Row-era Tupac. But that was only nine months!
Tupac was the first artist that I really related to.
You're mad 'cause my style you're admiring. Don't be mad, UPS is hiring.
Ghost tells me every few years, Yo, you showed me this style ... I'm like, man, we the same style. At the end of the day, he's one of my favorite rappers, I'm one of his favorite rappers, and we just do it.
My biggest influence is Tupac. He was a poet, and listening to Tupac is what inspired me to start rapping.
Tupac gave us validity. Tupac made the kid getting beat up every day realize that it was okay to be smart. Tupac made the knucklehead realize that it was okay to stay home and read a book. A fool at 40, a fool forever.
What influenced my style was the feeling that I was a lousy artist... I was like the ugly duckling, not knowing what I was, style-wise, and thinking I was all on my own... I evolved into a style that couldn't be compared to anyone else.
I was obsessed with Tupac - like eat, sleep, breathe Tupac. During this obsessive love affair, I dressed the part.
Growing up, you hear Tupac's music, it's kind of like... it goes without saying that everyone likes Tupac.
I kinda got an old soul a little bit, I listen to a lot of Tupac before my games, Tupac and Biggie.
Before I got signed to Bad Boy, I grew up listening to Snoop and Tupac and my hood was all Tupac driven.
Roman Polanski is one of my favorite filmmakers, and John Phillips one of my favorite songwriters. I had the honor to meet each of these men and was almost giddy to be blessed with the chance to tell each artist what his work meant has to me.
Revolution is Tupac showing a young artist that he can scribble in a notebook and it's worth a lot.
'Dear Mama' is my favorite song from Tupac, man. It touches you, and I think that that's the most important thing with music.